16 month old- Not responding to name - advise please :)!?

[MumOfHals]

Hiya,

My little girl is 16 months old and 9/10 she doesn't respond to me if I say her name (Hallie). If I go 'Hallie,look' she twists her head extremely quick as if to say 'What has mummy got!?'

She has started to really come on with her words, here is a handful of what she can say:

• Cat
• Dog ( oggggg - she says)
• Pig (but she only pronounces the end 'ggggg')
• Clock
• Car
• Bubble
• Ball
• Shoes
• Duck
• Keys
• Dada
• Seeds (She loves feeding the birds seeds in the garden)
• Birdies (deeees - she calls them)

She is coming on with her speech, she also is very sociable, will smile and wave when people come into the house or we see friends out, she is also excited when people come round, make eye contact, point, has understanding.

I am just slightly worried about the not responding to name as I can see it is a query for autism and I've read early intervention is more benefital.

However, can it just be some normal toddler behaviour to have selective hearing at this age?! and is just one flag enough to even be considered for assessment?

Any advise / experiences would be grand!

Hi, I can't advise on your question except to say there may be better boards, probably the Parenting one.
(Lots of things can be 'signs' of autism, I don't think 1 in isolation would be considered in any way an issue though. She sounds like she's developing fine to me.)

Single channeled attention is not uncommon in this age group. She is not showing any of the other ‘signs’ so I wouldn’t be concerned as she has eye contact, can point etc. Try to get her 2yr review done as close to 2nd birthday as you can so you can discuss with your HV

My daughter is about 21 months and her speech isn't much better than yours! I think she sounds fine, if she's waving/pointing/eye contact etc then they are all positive signs.

Names are weird I think (I have three kids so have been through this before), we attach a lot of meaning to them obviously but to some babies I think they are just another word. Also, do you call her her name? My daughter has a nickname as well so I guess that can be confusing for some kids.

My eldest son has a name which is quite difficult for kids to say and he didn't respond to it for ages, I think because there were other words that sounded more interesting to him! I wouldn't worry about it, just use her name lots so instead of 'look at that duck' (or whatever) say 'sally, look at that duck'